Participants:

Esther          Norm          Diana          Linda
Seigi           Boris         III            Tim B.
Stephanie       Phillip       Richard        Ainsley
Oliver                        Frowin*

—-

Fruits of our labor. . .

Literature search results refined by session participants. (more information and organization/refining of info to come)

W = WORKFORCE BENEFITS (INDIVIDUAL / GROUP) P = PROCESS BENEFITS O = ORGANIZATIONAL BENEFITS

   assess strengths, limitations & weaknesses

   Emotional and Mental Closure
   Revitalizes the Group

   reduces uncertainty 
   competence building
   learn concepts behind the experiences  //~how it happened the way it did~//
   members share & understand one anothers perspectives
   foster experience-based creativity

   uncover chains of causality
   recognize risk patterns
   identify/capture/analyze important project heuristics
   discover/investigate circumstances that surrounded/led to problems
   provides for cross-validation of intra-project info.
   identify project gaps & reduce cycle time
   analyze or discover root causes
   increase awareness of actions, processes and behaviors
   become aware of skills learned in the project
   increased awareness of how individual work affects others
   surfaces and develops contextual knowledge
   illuminate conflicts that would otherwise stay hidden
   identify external environmental factors and conditions & their influences
   internal fault/defect detection - preventative
   recognize iteration risk and manage it accordingly
   opportunity to ascertain team satisfaction & organizational health
   reveals assumptions that would otherwise stay hidden
   identify project achievements

   Prioritize changes to be made
   transform problems into improvement activities
   opportunity for the team to rate itself on continuing improvement
   better planning for contingencies through awareness
   establish preventative practices & protocols
   identify challenges likely to encounter (through pattern identification/knowledge-sharing)
   compare actual vs. planned activities
   modify responses to organizational behavior
   opportunity detection and/or promotion
   identify solutions that have worked in the past for future application

   improve estimation
   build trust among participants
   provide valuable feedback
   knowledge-sharing - individual-> team-> across teams-> organizational-> inter-organizational
   increase workforce & organizational productivity
   increase communication [skills]
   strenghtens team relationships for ongoing teams
   encourages innovation
   increase social/collaborative skills among participants
   form or reinforce effective communication patterns
   bring together cross-affinity teams *formerly in BPL
   BPL = 'big picture learning'
   lends to bisociation (part of an idea or little idea + another's partial idea or little idea = BIG idea!)

   integrate individual & team learning
   allows for a variety of ways to present and examine info so it is accessible for all learning types
   allows for time and means to process information consciously & subconsciously
   non-intuitive lessons learned (def: lessons learned through feedback and dynamic, systematic effects) 
   develops a learning culture
   sharing of specific techniques and practices for success
   encourages embedded learnin for continuous improvement of project management processes & practices
   recycle lessons learned & use concepts/principles/practices again

   allows for recovery from project failure or strained relationships
   opportunity to identify and halt positive feedback loops (definition forthcoming - the 'vicious circles')
   heals rifts between people in the group

   address/resolve feelings of underappreciation
   create or show value in the team & individuals

Build Community

Teams learn to work together to solve their own problems

Opens barriers to communication and comfortability within communities

Opportunity to indroduce new member(s) to teams/organizations quickly/efficiently/effectively

• gaining/collecting empirical data is a benefit for going into a retrospective, but it would not be an outcome (foundation, not benefit)
• 'the benefit of any X will depend on how mature an organization is at the time of the retrospective' - Norm
• 'recommendation: talk to Mary Lynn about the scope of the thesis!' ←-I liked this one! :)